How long for test E to get my levels back up again?

[BigStu81]

Hey Guys,

I know it's said that it can take a good while to feel the full effects of test E but I'm wondering how long it would likely take to get me feeling remotely decent again after not having applied my Tostran gel for a week?

Long story short, I was supposed to have another blood test a month after my last one - total test was way too high (2300ng/dl) and my dose was halved. However, my private doc has gone off for open heart surgery in the meantime and I've had to deal with another doctor from his practice (non-hormone specialist) who unexpectedly won't refill my prescription until he sees all the results.

I have my bloods done on the NHS and can usually get in the next day, so just called up after a month on my new dose, safe in the knowledge I still had a week's supply left. However, this time they couldn't fit me in for almost a week. It's now been over a week since the blood test (so two weeks since I called up) and they have everything but my total testosterone which always seems to be a few days behind the other results. Everything else is in range but the doc won't fulfill my script without seeing everything.

So I've now been over a week cold turkey and feeling pretty crap. As it's probably going to be a few more days before I've got the results, sent them off, received script, been to pharmacy, etc, I've bought some Test E as a future insurance against this happening.

I'm going to give myself a shot tomorrow but I'm wondering how quickly I can expect to stop feeling crappy...

 

[BigStu81]

Tomorrow's my first day back at work after a week off. I usually get packages delivered to work, but I was a bit worried about receiving test (although legal here in the UK). I'm torn between working from home tomorrow morn to receive package and do a shot (which might be frowned upon after a week off) or the alternative of missing the delivery and not getting it till Tuesday. If I'm unlikely to feel much benefit in the same day I'll just wait till Tue.

I've got my six month job appraisal tomorrow at 4pm so it's a b1tch that I'm going to be feeling like a 12yo girl. Man, I need to be feeling like the boss so I can negotiate pay rise etc.

 

[Megatron28]

Test E usually starts to kick in after two to three weeks. It reaches serum saturation levels after about 6 weeks.

Test P would have been a better choice if you want something that is fast acting.

 

[BigStu81]

Ok, cheers man. I did consider that instead but didn't fancy multiple injections over the next week (stupid now I think about it). I know it takes a while for the body to acclimatise to exogenous test but as I've been on TRT for a while I thought I'd feel better as soon as my levels started to rise again (which I thought would be within 24-48 hrs).

 

[BigStu81]

Most of the threads I could find were talking about using E for a cycle, but I'm just aiming to get back to a normal level so assumed this would be reached quicker.

 

[Mprtz]

I would think that since you were on test gel before, that it would only take a few days to get your serum levels back up after your injection.

The effects of having much higher T levels can take weeks to kick in, but presumably you are just returning to the level that you were accustomed to so it shouldn't be that long IMO.

 

[halfwit]

Three to four weeks is what you're looking at due to the ester. Gels have very short half-lives, which is why you feel the effects much faster. Unfortunately, Tron is correct and prop (or acetate/phenylpropionate) would have been a better choice.

I suggest calling the office and asking them if they would withhold insulin from a diabetic. This is no different.

Edit: WARNING, THIS IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

You can alternatively inject a dose 4x your normal dose to see relief much faster. However, please be aware that you are spiking testosterone AND estradiol by doing so. An AI is recommended for this method. I do still think calling the office and putting it in terms to help them realize how idiotic they are being is best, but that is an option.

Just wanted to give that option, with caution, as I know how shitty it feels to have low T.

 

[BigStu81]

Ok, I've just shot 250mg into my quad. Although I numbed the area with an ice pack first I was still surprised at literally feeling nothing.

I did aspirate first but still got a fair trickle of blood for a few mins - don't think I kept needle still enough as didn't realise would have to pull back so hard, didn't expect the level of suction.

Hoping I didn't lose any of the test whilst bleeding. I used a 23g 1" needle and buried it to the hilt.

 

[Gainjin260]

Ok, I've just shot 250mg into my quad. Although I numbed the area with an ice pack first I was still surprised at literally feeling nothing.

I did aspirate first but still got a fair trickle of blood for a few mins - don't think I kept needle still enough as didn't realise would have to pull back so hard, didn't expect the level of suction.

Hoping I didn't lose any of the test whilst bleeding. I used a 23g 1" needle and buried it to the hilt.

No need to aspirate. Ever. Regardless of that get ready for some PIP. First time quads=trouble walking 24-48 hours after. At least for me.

 

[Milton]

No need to aspirate. Ever. Regardless of that get ready for some PIP. First time quads=trouble walking 24-48 hours after. At least for me.

nice one thanks Gaijin!

 

[BigStu81]

Haha, yes it's pretty sore now but I can totally tolerate that. It was the injection I was crapping myself about but literally didn't feel anything after icing the area. Good to know soreness is usual and not just down to my poor technique.

Hoping no test came out with the blood but didn't look oily. I'm guessing the ache in my thigh indicates I did indeed inject into the muscle. I've got a fair bit of padding but I stuck the 1" needle as deep as I could.

 

[BigStu81]

Interesting what you say about nit needing to aspirate. When researching it I did read that many nurses aren't taught to do it nowadays for most IM injections. One article said that over 36,000 aspirations over four years not a single drop of blood was aspirated.

It would certainly have gone a lot smoother without me having to switch hands to hold the syringe down whilst I yanked the top. Especially as the official recommendation used to be to aspirate for a full 5-10 seconds.

 

[Mprtz]

Three to four weeks is what you're looking at due to the ester. Gels have very short half-lives, which is why you feel the effects much faster. Unfortunately, Tron is correct and prop (or acetate/phenylpropionate) would have been a better choice.

I suggest calling the office and asking them if they would withhold insulin from a diabetic. This is no different.

Edit: WARNING, THIS IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

You can alternatively inject a dose 4x your normal dose to see relief much faster. However, please be aware that you are spiking testosterone AND estradiol by doing so. An AI is recommended for this method. I do still think calling the office and putting it in terms to help them realize how idiotic they are being is best, but that is an option.

Just wanted to give that option, with caution, as I know how shitty it feels to have low T.

I would like to better understand your reasoning. Pharmacokinetics of T cyp or enth put peak serum levels at 48 to 72 hours after injection.

Inject someone (new) with 150mg of test cyp and test them 3 days later and I would expect them to have solid serum testosterone levels. They may not feel all the effects for a while, but that's because the effects initially lag behind serum concentration.

This isn't the case here... OP is only off T for a week or two.

Where, exactly, do the "weeks" come in? I can't help thinking that we are conflating the delayed onset of effects with the serum concentration.

 

[halfwit]

I would like to better understand your reasoning. Pharmacokinetics of T cyp or enth put peak serum levels at 48 to 72 hours after injection.

Inject someone (new) with 150mg of test cyp and test them 3 days later and I would expect them to have solid serum testosterone levels. They may not feel all the effects for a while, but that's because the effects initially lag behind serum concentration.

This isn't the case here... OP is only off T for a week or two.

Where, exactly, do the "weeks" come in? I can't help thinking that we are conflating the delayed onset of effects with the serum concentration.

Serum concentrations require four half-lives to reach saturation. The 48hr peak pharmacokinetics you are referring to are a local maxima (versus a global) after saturation has occurred. You're absolutely correct, but we're talking two different aspects.

Does that make sense? Sorry Mprtz, I'm kind of doing the late afternoon shuffle at work, and replying when I have a minute.

 

[Mprtz]

Serum concentrations require four half-lives to reach saturation. The 48hr peak pharmacokinetics you are referring to are a local maxima (versus a global) after saturation has occurred. You're absolutely correct, but we're talking two different aspects.

Does that make sense? Sorry Mprtz, I'm kind of doing the late afternoon shuffle at work, and replying when I have a minute.

I do understand that, but I don't believe the effect is that pronounced. Let's do a simplified example:

Let's say injections are weekly and the half life is 7 days. If a single injection results in a (local) peak value of X (after, say 48 hours - doesn't really matter), then the peak of the second injection 7 days later shows a peak of 1.5X, the third week 1.75X and the fourth week 1.875X. Ultimate peak concentration would be found by expanding the convergent infinite series X(1+ 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8...) = 2X

So just inject a bit more to begin with if desired (though the standard dose should still be sufficient to keep low-T symptoms at bay), and no more AI should be required than anticipated.

 

[BigStu81]

Yeah, I read about peak serum levels within 48hrs and hoped that would at least alleviate the fatigue symptoms even if I hadn't reached full saturation.

Regarding the stand in doc I'm dealing with atm I don't really know where I stand. On one hand, I can see why they'd prefer to see my results before possibly prescribing me 2x what I need (i.e. my former dose) but I'm also pretty pissed about being left in the lurch tbh. They were happy for me to half my dose and continue applying when I was at 2300 ng/dl, so surely now a month later it can't be due to health concerns (especially as e2, hemacrit, rbc and full blood panel were all in range and massively improved from a month ago).

I can't even see how I could've worked around it as I'd have had to wait a good couple of weeks for the full results even if I'd got a next day appt at the start.

 

[BigStu81]

I'm also a bit confused about the kick in duration. Assuming it takes a few weeks to feel the effects when injecting weekly, what happens if I just inject this single dose and go back to my gels in a week?

 

[halfwit]

I do understand that, but I don't believe the effect is that pronounced. Let's do a simplified example:

Let's say injections are weekly and the half life is 7 days. If a single injection results in a (local) peak value of X (after, say 48 hours - doesn't really matter), then the peak of the second injection 7 days later shows a peak of 1.5X, the third week 1.75X and the fourth week 1.875X. Ultimate peak concentration would be found by expanding the convergent infinite series X(1+ 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8...) = 2X

So just inject a bit more to begin with if desired (though the standard dose should still be sufficient to keep low-T symptoms at bay), and no more AI should be required than anticipated.

Right, and you'll notice how your series converges at t=28 (4w). That's the steady state value based on a half-life of 7 days. I never said that some benefit wouldn't be realized before that point, but it won't reach that point until 4 half-lives in. As the gel has a much shorter half-life (about 100 minutes), it has already decayed out of his system by this point in time.

If he were on injections to begin with, and missed a week, the catch up time would indeed be much shorter.

 

[Mprtz]

Right, and you'll notice how your series converges at t=28 (4w). That's the steady state value based on a half-life of 7 days. I never said that some benefit wouldn't be realized before that point, but it won't reach that point until 4 half-lives in. As the gel has a much shorter half-life (about 100 minutes), it has already decayed out of his system by this point in time.

If he were on injections to begin with, and missed a week, the catch up time would indeed be much shorter.

As usual, you are right on the whole. The series actually only converges at infinity ... the 4 half-lives is just an arbitrary cutoff where some 90+% is reached.

 

[Megatron28]

I'm also a bit confused about the kick in duration. Assuming it takes a few weeks to feel the effects when injecting weekly, what happens if I just inject this single dose and go back to my gels in a week?

Think about your testosterone levels behaving like a wave. Each injection has a wave pattern where it spikes up and then tails off. When you start overlapping injections it helps you keep steadier levels between each injection (smaller peaks and troughs in the wave pattern).

So that one injection you have done so far will help, but it will be short lived and muted. After a couple of days it will peak and then start tailing off quickly. By the end of the week half of it will be out of your system (maybe even after 4-5 days as the half-life of test E is debatable). You will also be losing testosterone into the aromatization process too.

And the fact that your were on gels before really has no bearing now as that is all out of your system by now.